Italy quake destroys 250 mn euros worth of cheese

[FarCenter]

AFP - Sunday's quake in northeastern Italy destroyed more than 300,000 wheels of Parmesan and Grana Padano, a similar cheese, with an estimated value of more than 250 million euros, an industry official said.

"The earthquake was very strong and heavily damaged the structures of many warehouses as well as thousands of tonnes" of the two cheeses, said Stefano Berni, head of a consortium that protects the Grana Padano designation.

...

An initial estimate of 250 million euros ($320 million) is "very conservative," Berni said, adding that he hoped no further tremors would "further aggravate the state of the already highly damaged and fragile structures."

A wheel of the cheese can weigh up to 40 kilogrammes (90 pounds).

http://www.france24.com/en/20120520-italy-quake-destroys-250-mn-euros-worth-cheese

[Swede]

1. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Not the cheese!

[Merlot]

3. Seconded.

[xchrom]

2. That is to weep.

[MrScorpio]

4. This is a tragedy of epic proportions

I have to cry now.

That poor cheese.

[Merlot]

5. I love the Parmesan and Grana Padano cheeses from Italy

Funny thing, it's actually government cheese. The gov't supports the industry because it is a good advertisement for Italy, and of course there are jobs. But they actually loose money on the cheese already, so I can imagine this could be bad news indeed.

[uppityperson]

6. Aw dang, that is going to hurt a lot of people there.

[GoCubsGo]

7. At least it wasn't the Peccorino Romano.

But, damn! What a waste of good cheese.


I feel bad for the people who lost their homes and businesses, too.

[Arctic Dave]

8. What will I put on my spaghetti!

The horror!!!

[Zanzoobar]

9. Is the whole country worth its weight in cheese?

TBD

[longship]

10. I'm a Romano fan, but this isn't good

nt

[itsrobert]

11. Greek Feta will corner the market

n/t

[Zalatix]

12. Damn, that's a lot of food.

Cheese isn't the only thing people eat, but I imagine that particular kind of cheese is used in a hell of a lot of meals, in Italy.

How long does it take to produce with that much food?

[grasswire]

13. DAMN

I bet it smelled great.

My sincere condolences to the people of Italy and especially to the families of the deceased.

[MrScorpio]

14. Pics!

Pre-disaster

http://photos.hhoffman.co.uk/p56769887/

http://photos.hhoffman.co.uk/p56769887/h62d5956#h62d5956

[Merlot]

19. Beautiful Pics - thanks for posting

Rows and rows of Italian cheese...sigh...

[HopeHoops]

15. Fuck. Just fuck.

That's going to mess up my cooking for months.

[yellowcanine]

16. Hopefully the cheeses of Nazareth were not damaged.

[slackmaster]

17. I guess we'll have to use Romano and Asiago instead

That's a lot of cheese. What a tragic waste.

[Aerows]

18. Damn

Now Parmesan cheese prices are going to go through the roof . This sucks.

[haele]

20. Damn, real parmisan from Parma is the food of the Gods....

The "parmisan cheese" you get in wedges or the plastic tubs at the supermarket, even if it claims to be authentic, is not authentic unless it comes directly off the wheel from Italy. The stuff in the green can is just leavings...

Dipped in real balsamic vinegar - the real vinegar is almost jammy.... and it's pure heaven - sweet and salt, with a mix of earthy tang...
(BTW, if you want to know something about how real balsamic vinegar tastes without paying $50 - $150 a bottle to do so, take about four bottles of decent quality store-bought "Balsemic vinegar de Modina", put in a pot on medium boil and reduce it to about one bottle's worth of vinegar. You end up with something similar to what is called "mosto-cotto" or condiment grade Balsemic Vinegar, and can get fairly close to what real balsamic vinegar tastes like, because you've (hopefully) boiled out the coloring and corn syrup that they put in the salad dressing style and managed to boil it down the 30% they do to the official vinegar.

Our cheesemonger won't be able to get the really good stuff affordably for a while, then.


Haele

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

21. It's where I'm from

I'm from Bologna which is not far from Modena. The entire area is a producer of parmigiana, grana padano, prosciutto di Parma, aceto balsamico etc. my friends and relatives tell me the aftershocks continue. It feels like they're dancing